The last month has been good to me for thrift store finds.
All the decks pictured here are ones I found in local thrift shops and added to my collection. The ones I'm not showing will be sold or traded.
The top 4 cases all hold plastic playing cards by various makers: Kem, Fournier, unknown modern, and Copag. The bottom right deck is a vintage magnetic deck of cards that came with a special board to play on in windy situations. The cards are no thicker than regular ones but are very heavy, and they shuffle fine. The board has magnetic strips in it while the cards have a very thin sheet of ferrous metal as the middle layer.
Here are the cards in their boxes/cases:
- thrift in boxes small.jpg (233.9 KiB) Viewed 1482 times
The remaining decks are all paper - a mix of modern and vintage. The one in the black plastic frame is made by Hasbro. The black case becomes a dealing shoe when reassembled and I show it that way in the second photo. They made a whole series of card playing sets using this same custom deck design. I also have their card holders set, and I know they make something called a "Shuffle Shaker".
Here are the cards out of their boxes and cases:
- thrift out of box small.jpg (260.23 KiB) Viewed 1482 times
The Tarabish deck (see the green Celtic knotwork box and coal miner K of S) was made for a game that is currently only played in Cape Breton of the province Nova Scotia here in Canada. The game was brought to Cape Breton by Lebanese people who came to work in the coal and steel industries around 1900. They in turn had picked up the game from The Netherlands through trade routes. All of the kings in this pack are coal miners and every court card is different.
Here is a look at the great red leather case set the Waddingtons Excel decks came in. I just got these and haven't cleaned the case up yet. These were cool to find since the cards date from exactly that time when the abolition of duty on playing cards in England happened - 4th Aug. 1960. The special seal that runs up one side and over the top on these decks talks at length about the change in look of the card packaging. They seemed anxious to reassure their customers that the quality of the cards had not changed. The red deck is still sealed.
I was going to give the name and maker of every deck but I've babbled on enough. If anyone wants to know more just ask. I'm happy to answer any questions.
